Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind the house. One yellow-eyed wolf –her wolf- watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn’t know why.

the heat.

Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace…until now.

the shiver.

For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it’s spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human- and Grace must fight to keep him- even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

Grace has always been a lonely and shy girl. Pretty much raising herself because even though her parents technically lives with her, they don’t really take care of her. She’s the parent figure of the household and I think it kind of describes her well. She is caring, responsible and independent. Ever since she’s been attacked by wolves at a younger age, Grace has been fascinated by the wolves roaming the woods behind her house, and one of them is returning the favor. An epic love story, where impossible has a whole new meaning, awaits you within the pages of Shiver, and trust me, you don’t wanna miss out.

I’d like to start by saying, Shame on me for not picking this book earlier. It. Was. Amazing. Maggie created a very unique werewolf lore, and I’m actually uncomfortable using the word werewolf because it’s not really what they are. In this world, humans infected are either humans or wolves and they have no to very little control over their changes. I think the key element to this special lore is that when the “werewolf” is in wolf form, they are an animal with the instinct that goes with it and none of the human consciousness. And I don’t want to ruin the punch, so I won’t tell you what triggers the changes =)

Maggie knitted awesome characters and I will talk to you about Sam first because surprisingly, I connected more with him than with Grace. Sam is a boy with strong moral and is a pure gentleman, determined to do the right thing at all cost, it will sometime lead to some lovely awkward moments between him and Grace. He also got a very hard past and memories and nightmares are hunting him. His biggest torture is to loose himself when he is a wolf, and he fights it as hard as he can. While Sam is very artistic, Grace is very pragmatic and lives in an organized world. She always tries to find logic behind everything, and of course her logic fails her in a world where boys can turn into wolves. Secondary characters will also take an important role in the plot and while I enjoyed their personality, I kind of wanted to know a bit more about their past, they were all very rooted in the present.

Narration switches back and forth between Grace and Sam along the way (and it’s always clearly stated at the beginning of every chapter who the narrator is), which reveal a lot more depth to the plot. As you can guess my favorites part were the ones from Sam’s point of view, because he is such a sweet-heart, but Grace’s parts were equally good if you are not prejudiced. I also appreciated the little flashbacks encountered here and there along the way.

Under every chapter’s titles the temperature is noted, I thought it was very thoughtful of Maggie to add this bit of detail as it is so meaningful to the story.

Maggie did an awesome job keeping us in unbearable suspense the entire book, not knowing if we’ll be granted a happy ending or not (and no I won’t tell you!), and I loved her writing. There was this scene in a candy shop when she described it by scent and I could totally picture myself there. Kudos for creating a world so tangible.

Shiver is a remarkably well-written epic love story, wrapped in a mysterious and magical lore. Sam & Grace will submerge you by their intensity and I’m sure you will never think of werewolves the same way again.

Lucky for me, Linger, the second book in the series, is about to hit the shelves, so I won’t have to wait for too long before I can dive in this world again!

17 People left their mark' :

Oh my goodness. Is this a movie trailer? It was great! Shiver is one my favorite books. I love Sam more than any charecter in any book. Maggie is a descriptive poetic author. I will read anything she writes!

Isn't that book amazing?!? Literally one of the ones I couldn't stand to put down. I made the mistake of bringing it to work with me to read on breaks and couldn't stand to not try and read it anyway. It's such a new angle to the werewolf thing... it was just awesome to read.

Not to be mean, but that is not an official trailer because some of those clips were from Blood and Chocolate, another werewolf movie. It was nothing like the book by Annette Curtis Klause.

I mean some clips of the blonde actress might have been real. I don't know. But some of the words sounded like they were coming from the Blood and Chocolate actress.

Still interesting, in some ways. Just had to say because as I was watching I was like hey, that's Blood and Chocolate. Which again the movie and the book are totally different for any other werewolf lovers out there. See the movie first because the book was wayyy better and wayyy different than the movie. But they are both good when looked at separately.

I didn't pick Shiver up until recently but I am SO glad I did. I fell in love with the story just like you did :) And I felt a little more connected towards Sam but I still loved Grace. This book is worth buying and I think I need to go to the book store now x)

i'm here on the cep, and i'm now a follower! your review was so detailed and well-written; you took the words right out of my mouth! i loved shiver as well! initially i thought i wouldn't like it, but as i read on i developed such a love for it, especially for the character of sam! i can't wait to read linger :D